Policing three recent anti-migrant protests at two Hampshire ports earmarked for small boat arrivals has cost at least £350,000, a council leader has said.
Zoe Huggins, Tory leader of Gosport Borough Council, is now asking the Home Office also pay for the clean-up costs after protests on Sunday night saw residents’ bins set on fire and portable toilets tipped into the street and used as barricades.
She accused the central Government of failing to respond to the local authority’s warnings after 149 migrants from a mega-dinghy were brought ashore at a former Royal Navy sea fort on Sunday evening.
Twelve arrests were made for offences including assaulting police officers after 350 demonstrators gathered near a marina at Fort Blockhouse. A small number of officers were treated at the scene for non-serious injuries.
The councils where parents could get potty training support
More parents in England are set to receive extra support with toilet training their children before they start primary school.
Here’s what we know.
Potty pilot progress
A pilot, trialled by City of York Council, saw potty-training advice sent to 1,700 families alongside school place offer letters in April, followed by a reduction in the number of children starting reception without being toilet trained compared to last year.
A survey of teachers by charity Kindred Squared, which funded the pilot, suggested around one in four children who started reception in 2025 were not toilet trained.
More about the scheme
Parent workshops and teacher training sessions were arranged to help with toilet training four-year-olds.
Community collaboration
There has been a 42 per cent decrease in the proportion of children starting school not toilet trained in York, the results from the pilot suggest.
‘Teachers losing a day a week’
Felicity Gillespie, chief executive of Kindred Squared, said parents and carers have been calling for “clear, concise, targeted advice” and that on average, teachers have been “losing the equivalent of a day a week of teaching time helping children who are not able to go to the toilet themselves”.
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More classroom time
I think the biggest impact for us has been that we don’t have to spend so much time changing children now.
Jo Mould, a teacher at Robert Wilkinson Primary Academy, one of 55 schools which took part in the pilot, said it allowed teachers to spend more time in the classroom.
Safeguarding measures mean it takes two members of staff to change a child’s nappy, which takes time away from other children.
Making a ‘real difference’
Toilet training can be one of the biggest milestones in a child’s early years, so it’s encouraging to see this pilot helping more children develop the confidence and independence they need before starting school. When children are supported to take these important steps early, it can make a real difference to how they settle in, make friends and start learning.
Paul Waugh, minister for early education
More to follow?
Some 20 councils in England are now looking at following the York pilot, including:
Mortgage rates hit three-year high – here’s what to do
Mortgage rates are at their highest since 2023, with just nine sub-5 per cent fixed deals available.
The average two-year rate has reached 5.98 per cent and the five-year rate 6 per cent – their highest levels since December and September 2023, respectively.
Iran war stokes inflation fears
The past month has seen major banks hike prices several times, as financial traders have begun to expect that inflation will stay higher for longer as a result of the US-Iran war. Barclays increased fixed rates on four occasions, while HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and TSB each made three rounds of increases.
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Vanishing act for fixed deals
1,494
There were 1,494 sub-5 per cent fixed deals at the start of September.
However, 1,385 of these have since vanished, according to Moneyfacts.
- Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, said volatility has had a “brutal” impact on fixed mortgage rates.
- Nick Mendes, of John Charcol brokers, added that further increases “are likely while markets stay this unsettled”.
Huge impact on households
- Borrowers coming off fixed rates face a significant jump in payments.
- On a £250,000 mortgage with a 30-year repayment term, the difference between a five and six per cent rate is about £150 a month.
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If you have a mortgage expiring later this year…
- Compare a wide range of lenders and banks – don’t settle for the one you’re currently with.
- Consider speaking to a broker to help you, as these are professionals who often have access to deals you can’t find online directly.
- Most lenders will let you lock in a rate several months before yours ends, help you avoid going on to a standard variable rate.
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What to do if you’re buying…
Nationwide’s rate reservation tool lets you book a rate for up to 90 days.
Aaron Strutt, of Trinity Financial, said Nationwide’s rate reservation tool offers an exception to the general rule that if you’re buying a home, you need the seller to accept your offer before you can submit a full mortgage application.
Experts say it is still worth considering other lenders, though, to find your best fit.
New James Bond novel in the works from historian Dan Jones
Historian Dan Jones is set to pen a new James Bond novella as part of celebrations for the National Year of Reading.
The story was announced on 5 October, also known as James Bond Day as it was the date the first 007 film, Dr No, which premiered in 1962.
Out this year
Where and when?
The new story will see Bond in Sri Lanka, in 1954 as the British are leaving.
Paying homage
The story, titled will pay homage to Ian Fleming’s fourth Bond novel, , 70 years after it was first published.
Available soon
It will be published as a special edition via ianflemingshop.com on 3 December.
‘A pivotal moment in history’
Being asked to write a story is one of the greatest honours in contemporary fiction. I’m very excited to take to Ceylon at such a pivotal moment in world history – and thrilled that Ian Fleming Publications are trusting me to pay tribute to Diamonds Are Forever, which is one of the great books in the canon.
Dan Jones, historian and author
Fleming’s character lives on
Fleming wrote 12 Bond novels and two short-story collections between 1953 and his death in 1964. Numerous continuation authors have since added to the canon, most recently Charlie Higson with , released in September.
On the silver screen, there has been a long-running search for the next actor to play Bond since Daniel Craig’s departure.
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The five best history books of all time, according to Dan Jones
Dan Jones has spent much of his career bringing some of history’s most colourful characters and turbulent periods back to life. So, when Jones picks up a history book for pleasure, it has a high bar to clear.
The BBC has appointed Rachel Jupp, its former director of documentaries and long-form journalism, as the corporation’s new director of news and current affairs.
It comes nearly a year after the previous chief, Deborah Turness, resigned following the fallout over how BBC edited a speech by Donald Trump.
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Trump-Panorama controversy
The controversy that led to Turness’ resignation centred on a documentary about Trump’s role in the 6 January Capitol riot in 2021.
The documentary was accused of misleading viewers by splicing together parts of his speech delivered at different points. The row prompted a wider crisis over the BBC’s editorial standards.
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Jupp, whose new role starts this month, said she was “honoured” to “lead BBC News”. BBC director-general Matt Brittin described Jupp her as “an outstanding editorial leader”.
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Stepping in as redundancies loom
Sweeping cuts
Jupp will have responsibility for a team of 4,500 people and will be paid a salary of £400,000.
Sweeping cuts
It comes as the BBC continues to make sweeping jobs cuts.
Bid to save £500m
Between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs are set to be axed in an attempt to save £500m over two years amid “significant financial pressures”.
Two RNLI boats brought the migrants to Fort Blockhouse, the former home of the Royal Navy Submarine Service, at around 10.20pm. The migrants were put on coaches and driven under police escort to be processed in Kent.
Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Donna Jones, said hundreds of officers were deployed from seven forces including the Metropolitan Police, Kent, Surrey, Dorset and Thames Valley.
Huggins claimed some protesters threw nails on the road and used construction equipment and portable toilets as barricades during Sunday’s protest.
The migrants were on a small boat that was launched from Normandy’s Utah Beach area, around 100 miles away.
It’s the third vessel in recent weeks to use the more dangerous longer route between Normandy and Hampshire – avoiding the shorter but more heavily-policed crossing from around Calais.
Last month, around 140 migrants from a mega-dinghy were brought ashore by the RNLI at Eastney, Portsmouth, sparking disorder that saw eight officers assaulted.
Two weeks later, an attempt to bring around 40 migrants to Gosport was abandoned when hundreds of protesters massed. The Government is preparing contingency proposals to deal with migrant arrivals further down the South Coast from Kent.
On Monday, French authorities said two men died and two women were treated for burns after trying to cross from France in a small boat.
Around 190 people are known to have died attempting the journey across the English Channel since the small boat crisis flared in 2018.
The cost of small boat protests
Huggins told The i Paper she had been informed by the region’s police and crime commissioner that the two operations had cost police around £250,000.
“Last night would have cost about £100,000, and now there is also a cost being borne to the Gosport Borough Council,” she added.
Huggins said a minority of protesters had engaged in “antisocial behaviour” on Sunday.
“We had resident bins on fire, blockades, Portaloos, and construction equipment removed out on to streets, as well as nails in the road,” she said.
“That’s not acceptable. Local residents were fearful and remained inside their houses.”
The council would be asking the Home Office to reimburse it for the cost of a clean-up operation, she said.
Huggins said there had been no response after the council wrote to the Home Secretary last month raising concerns that Fort Blockhouse was not a suitable location for migrants to come ashore.
“We’re extremely disappointed, and I think it’s disgraceful that the Home Secretary can’t communicate straight to us,” she said.
“The site [Fort Blockhouse] is not suitable for several reasons. I think the Home Office are seeing the site as empty and MoD [Ministry of Defence] land. That should not be their only reason for selecting a site.
“We’ve asked for their full risk assessment. They’ve not responded and given us their evidence.”
The council’s understanding was that the derelict fort, which has no electricity or running water, would not be converted into a permanent processing site.
Instead, migrants would disembark before transfer on coaches to Dover, the Home Office’s main initial processing facility.
‘I just can’t afford it’
Jones, the Conservative PCC for Hampshire, has previously said the policing cost of the anti-migrant protests is around £150,000 each.
Speaking to LBC, Jones said a group called “South Coast Patriots” was involved in Sunday’s protest. She believes most of those arrested were local.
Jones called for all migrants to be taken to Dover instead of Hampshire, and for Border Force to be provided with larger vessels.
“They don’t have the right vessels to be able to transfer people from these these dinghies into their large cutter class ships,” she said.
“It’s not appropriate bringing people onto the beaches anywhere across the South Coast of England. They should be going to Dover.
“My call on the Home Secretary is to equip the UK Border Force and stop relying on the RNLI and stop relying on the police forces. I just can’t afford it.”